Morning on the Starship Enterprise
by Rosepixie
Summary: A series of very short stories about characters from Star Trek: The Original Series in the morning. There is very little plot, but it is safe to assume that the stories all take place on the same morning, so small connections may become evident. I have no current plans to expand any of these, but may continue to add more of them over time.
1. Spock

The alarm went off at precisely 0700 hours and buzzed exactly twice before Spock turned it off. He rose from his bed and stepped into his adjoining fresher to relieve himself. It was blessedly quiet.

In near-perfect silence, Spock moved deliberately around the main living space lighting evenly placed candles and incense. When everything was just right he sank into a traditional Vulcan meditation pose and began going through the meditation exercises that he practiced every morning. He found his morning meditation to be an almost critical part of his day while on the _Enterprise_. The ship was a welcome place to be and he valued his time serving on board, but the crew was almost entirely humans. Being surrounded by so much barely-checked emotion could be very wearing.

Spock considered his solitary morning rituals to be essential to his days in Starfleet. The solitude and routine were extremely soothing and helped him prepare to cope with the busy chaos that so often characterized life aboard the ship. As long as his morning routine and meditation was able to happen undisturbed, he found that the stress of serving among the disorder of a human crew was bearable - almost enjoyable in its way.

After his meditations were complete, Spock rose and put out the candles and incense. He took a shower lasting exactly three minutes and twenty-seven seconds long, dried himself off, and dressed in a clean, pressed uniform.

With a satisfied nod to his perfectly ordered quarters, Spock headed out to join the rest of the _Enterprise_ crew.


	2. Kirk

The alarm went off at 0700 hours and Captain Kirk didn't even open his eyes as he reached over to turn it off. He loved getting to turn off the alarm and go back to sleep for another twenty minutes every morning. He knew that it didn't actually make a difference, but he simply didn't feel as rested on mornings when he hadn't gotten those extra twenty minutes of sleep.

- ST - ST - ST -

He was standing on the bridge of his ship alone, watching the stars out the view port. He noticed a flash of light to the left side of the screen and turned towards it. The ship turned with him and carried him smoothly towards the twinkling spot of light.

As they got closer, he was able to make out that the flashing was light glinting off of a large pale pink gem that rested in the hollow at the base of a beautiful woman's neck. She smiled as he approached and he reached out to touch the coil of golden hair that spilled over her shoulder.

She opened her mouth to speak and his eyes were drawn to her perfect lips. Instead of the lilting, feminine voice he expected, however, she made an electronic buzzing sound.

- ST - ST - ST -

Kirk was pulled from the pleasant dream by the alarm going off again. He groaned. Sometimes he would swear the computer deliberately timed the alarm to ruin good dreams. Nevertheless, it was time for him to get up and dress for Alpha shift.

Pulling himself out of bed, Kirk headed for the fresher. He was showered and shaved quickly and came back into his room with a towel wrapped around his waist to dig out a clean uniform. He had just thrown a clean pair of pants onto the bed when the chime on his door went off. He glanced at the clock - 0742 hours.

"You're a few minutes early, Janice," he called into the door com unit. "I'll be ready for you in a minute."

"Yes, Captain," Yeoman Rand replied.

Kirk threw on the clean underwear and pants he had found before buzzing the yeoman into the room and turning back to find a clean shirt. He found one of his golden uniform tunics and turned back towards Janice as he started to pull it over his head. She was staring at him and he grinned, enjoying the expression on her face.

"So, what's on the docket for today?" he asked as he settled his shirt down around his waist and reached for the cup of coffee she was holding.

"Oh!" she said, jumping out of her trance with a pretty blush on her cheeks. "We're set to arrive at the unidentified planet by 1000 hours and no problems have been reported on the ship this morning." She handed him the datapadd she carried without looking up at him.

Kirk sipped his coffee and smiled.


	3. McCoy

On the assumption that he could always be summoned to Sickbay at any moment, Doctor Leonard McCoy always took a shower immediately after waking up in the morning. He had been called for an emergency while he was in the shower before, but it tended not to happen very often.

McCoy liked long showers, typically between ten and fifteen minutes (well over the regulation eight minutes typically allowed). He knew that Spock only used about three and a half minutes each day, so he had an arrangement with Mr. Scott that let him use the Vulcan's extra time with no extra forms or approvals needed from Kirk or Command. And the best part was that the hobgoblin was none the wiser.

A doctor did have to be especially scrupulous about hygiene, after all.

He was scheduled to go on an away mission to explore a newly discovered planet with Kirk and Spock later in the day. Because of that, he pulled up the Sickbay duty roster on his computer as he dried off with the disappointingly utilitarian towel provided by Starfleet. He glanced down at the list of names and frowned. Doctor M'Benga was on duty for the afternoon, which was fine, but he was unimpressed with the nursing staff scheduled for that shift. Given the high risk of emergencies during away missions with Captain Kirk, he liked to have a solid staff standing by. He knew that Christine had worked a double shift yesterday and had the day off, but he would feel better if he could find a way to get her on the shift instead. She was the best one he had in a crisis.

When McCoy had finished going through the list, he went to find a clean uniform and dress for the day. Since nobody had messaged him yet, he decided to assume that everyone on board the Enterprise must be in perfect health. As a result, it must be safe for him to head to the mess for a proper breakfast. If he was suddenly needed, Lt. Uhura could find him. Some coffee with biscuits and gravy would be perfect right now (even the poor excuse that passed for biscuits and gravy on this ship).

After he had collected his tray of food, McCoy scanned the room for a place to eat. He saw a few empty tables, but he ignored them and headed for the one in the corner where his off-duty head nurse sat sipping tea and reading a datapadd by herself.

Christine Chapel looked up suspiciously as the chief medical officer plopped unceremoniously into the seat across from her.

"What favor do you need now?" she asked, eyeing him with narrowed eyes. "I already promised to help with whatever trouble you get into today."

"No favor," he responded genially. "Just thought I'd join my favorite nurse for breakfast. Now that you mention the mission today, though …"


	4. Chapel

Christine stretched her arms up over her head and then bent forward to touch her toes. Her muscles were sore after a long double-shift yesterday and a less than refreshing night in her hard, Starfleet-issue bed. As she stood back up, her right shoulder made a painful, and audible, popping sound.

It was definitely time for a shower. _Enterprise_ regulations only gave her eight minutes of shower water, but it was better than nothing. With a sigh, Christine headed for the fresher that connected her room with the one next door. Checking to make sure the connecting quarters were empty and she could have the lavatory to herself for a little while, she shut both doors to the closet-sized room.

Before starting the water, she pulled out one of the sadly un-fluffy towels and began stripping off the uniform she had been too tired to change out of last night. The overshort jumper dress still irritated her. She was hard pressed to think of many ways that it could be less practical.

Only once she was fully undressed, with her blue uniform and black tights in a pile on the floor, did she start the shower. She intended to enjoy the full eight minutes of water she was allowed. Christine closed her eyes as the water, turned up as hot as she could stand it, pounded down over her sore muscles. She sighed and wished there was a bench in the tiny shower stall.

As she finally got down to the business of lathering shampoo into her hair, she thought over her plans for the day. After the double shift she had worked yesterday she was supposed to have the day off. Doctor McCoy had said that the captain would be leading an away team to an unknown planet, though, and she knew that she was likely to be called in when they got into trouble. McCoy always called on her when unusual things happened.

Christine closed her eyes and said a silent prayer to a god that she hadn't believed in since childhood that just this once Kirk and Spock would stay out of trouble. Just this once.


	5. Uhura

Nyota Uhura sang wordless syllables as she wrapped her soft robe around herself. She had showered and toweled off, so she pulled a basket out from under the sink in her fresher. She shared the space with an ensign from engineering who worked on Gamma Shift. They rarely ran into times when they both needed the fresher at the same time. Even though she rarely saw the other woman, she felt it was only polite not to leave her beauty supplies laying out.

The basket was full of make-up and tools for styling her hair. Nyota was meticulously organized in her work, but was content to leave things like her toiletries basket in complete chaos. She was tempted to simply upend the basket onto the counter, but last time she had done that a powder pot had burst open and spilled everywhere. She didn't feel like spending the morning cleaning up powder, so she simply started pulling pots, jars, tubes, and combs out of the basket and setting them randomly around on the counter.

Still singing, she set to work on her hair. Nyota sometimes wished that she could simply dry her hair and go, but most days she liked her pretty hairstyle. Today she was enjoying the process of teasing and arranging her hair. She had done it so many times that it was almost a zen exercise now. Some of the women on the ship wore elaborate up-dos, and while Nyota admired the fancy styles, she was much more comfortable with her comparably simple style.

With her hair finished, Nyota turned to her make-up. She enjoyed make-up. It was like an art piece that she got to continually refine and perfect. And it made her feel ready to face anything. It was better than body armor that way. As she carefully painted around her eyes, she took up her wordless song again.

She idly wondered if she could convince Spock to play his lyre this evening. It had been awhile since they had played music together and she always enjoyed it. Unfortunately, it would most likely depend on how today's away mission turned out. Nyota decided to be optimistic on that front. After all, they were definitely due for an uneventful away mission one of these days.

Once her make-up was complete, Nyota dressed in her uniform and headed to the mess to get some breakfast. She surveyed the room as she walked in. Most of the tables were occupied with crew members eating breakfast or drinking coffee. Christine was arguing with Doctor McCoy at one table and Nyota made a mental note to ask her about that later. Pavel sat alone, clearly struggling to wake up. Scotty was telling some of his young engineers a story with great animation.

In a back corner, all by himself, sat Spock reading. With a smile, Nyota headed to get some food. Tray in hand, she headed over to ask the first officer about playing his lyre later.


	6. Rand

Being a yeoman on the _Enterprise_ meant early hours. Being the captain's yeoman meant really early hours. Captain Kirk woke up at 0700 hours and Yeoman Janice Rand tried to be at his quarters with morning reports, breakfast, and coffee by 0745 hours. Sometimes, though, she wished that she could sleep in later.

Her alarm went off at 0500 hours and she allowed herself to delay it twice, which meant that she climbed out of bed at 0530 hours. Today it felt almost cruelly early, but she got up anyway.

After a quick shower, Janice slipped into her uniform and stood before the mirror in her small, shared fresher. She was grateful that she had an almost entirely opposite schedule from the security officer she shared with. She didn't like sharing a fresher, but never seeing the other woman who used it was the next best thing.

Janice could do her makeup and the elaborately woven hairstyle she favored almost in her sleep by this point. Some mornings she basically did so!

Once her appearance was to her satisfaction, Yeoman Rand headed to her office. This early in the morning, the area of the ship where her office was tended to be empty. Most of the officers on Gamma Shift had their office space on a lower deck, and everyone else on Alpha Shift didn't report for duty for a while yet.

Yeoman Rand slipped behind her desk and called up the call log and various departmental reports. Her fingers flew over the keypad interface as she pulled important pieces from the various reports into a morning update for Captain Kirk.

A scan report from engineering captured her attention. During the night the ship had gotten close enough to their destination for more detailed scans. They revealed the ruins of constructed structures on the supposedly uninhabited planet. Reading further, she also saw that they had found signs of DNA that did not match any known life forms in the Federation database.

Putting these findings at the top of her report, Rand sighed. The captain would be thrilled, but it meant that the away mission scheduled for today was more likely than expected to go not quite according to plan.

Well, she thought, they would reach the planet soon enough and there had been no problems reported on the ship throughout the night. A quiet ship was a nice thing to wake up to. It was time to fetch a breakfast tray for the captain and deliver the report.


	7. Chekov

BUZZ! BUZZ!

Ensign Pavel Chekov blearily opened his eyes. Where was that noise coming from?

BUZZZZZZ!

Why was his alarm going off so early? Pavel rubbed the sleepy crust from his eyes and looked around. His quarters were dark and quiet, but a small digital display near his bed caught his eye.

BUZZZZZZZZZZ!

Belatedly, he reached out his arm and turned off the alarm. It was half an hour later than it should be, though! How had that happened? With a groan, he realized that it probably had gone off when it should have and he had hit the wrong button again, setting it to snooze. And now he had barely enough time to get breakfast before his bridge shift started!

Scrambling out of bed, Chekov rushed to get ready for the day. He took a record short shower and haphazardly pulled on his uniform (failing to notice that the tunic was inside out). Still hopping into his regulation black books, he headed for the mess. He could just grab a cup of coffee and a biscuit before he had to report to the bridge.

Realizing that he had forgotten to comb his hair as he rode the turbolift, he reached up to run his fingers through it and attempt to straighten it a little. When his hand left the handle, however, the lift beeped a warning and began to slow. Chekov quickly grabbed it again and used the other hand on his hair instead. He doubted it was looking much better when the lift stopped and the doors slid open, but there wasn't anything else that he could do about it.

He hoped that the rest of his day started going better soon!


End file.
